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European Supermarket Goes Viral Advertising With Cats

Posted by Laurie Kay Olson on April 04, 2017

Who let the cats out? In this case it was the German supermarket chain Netto Marken-Discount for an amazing advertisement. With the help of American director Brian Lee Hughes and a tiny cat-sized replica of the stores was created. Several familiar internet cats were brought in to star in this fun feline feature. It was apparently an exercise in cat herding.

This ad is jaw-dropping!

The video was first released in June of 2016 and quickly went viral. A grocery store full of shopping cats (and carts) being scared by cucumbers and fighting over the last bottle of milk really appealed to cat lovers world-wide. It brings daydreams of being able to send our felines to fetch food when we are short on time.

The reminder that you should really go on a diet.

It took almost a week for the production company, Iconoclast, to build the cat-sized supermarket. Cat trainers were brought in to coax the kitties through moves like pushing a shopping cart through the aisles. Sudden sounds were used to create the appropriate expressions for close-ups.

While you won't see Grumpy Cat or Lil Bub hanging out in this video, you will see the jaw-dropping cat, the paws-up cat, and "no, no, no, no" cat. It all culminates with keyboard cat on the cash register doing his thing. Okay, it isn't really them. Just an incredible simulation with celebri-cat look-alikes.

Checking out.

Naturlich die Katzen, um, oops, naturally the cats were treated like stars with their own chairs on the set and special food and fun to keep them engaged.

Here is a video of the making of the advertisement. Be patient -- not all of it is in German. Most of it is in English.

Here is the finished ad. It has been viewed more than 13 million times.

Me-Wow!

The supermarket chain has more than 4,000 stores throughout Germany. That's a whole lot of cat lovers to reach and get shopping. I'd say mission accomplished.

Shopping cat with shopping cart.

Just to make things more complicated there are actually two other unrelated store chains in Europe named Netto -- one in France and one in Denmark. The Denmark chain also operate several of its stores in Germany. No doubt they will benefit from the advertisement as well. Cats really sell.